With IVF, Western medicine has accomplished an amazing feat in helping couples have children. However, hundreds, if not thousands of years before IVF was even an option, Chinese medicine has been helping women improve their fertility and overcome fertility problems.
Today, we are lucky to live in an era where both these types of medicine are available to everyone.
As a fertility acupuncturist, my philosophy is to embrace both sides and combine Western and Chinese medicine to achieve the best results. Both types of medicine have amazing methods to help couples with all kinds of fertility challenges so why not combine the best of both worlds? Why hop on one leg when you can walk on two?
What do fertility treatments, including IVF, actually do?
Fertility treatments, such as IVF, improve your chances of getting pregnant in one month by increasing the number of available eggs per cycle and getting the egg and sperm together to create an embryo.Men’s Health acupuncture
However, getting pregnant and having a healthy pregnancy involves much more than just getting sperm to fertilize an egg. The body needs to be healthy and in balance to support the growing baby. Hormones need to be balanced and there needs to be a good blood supply to the fetus to supply all the good things a baby needs to grow and develop normally.
This is where Chinese medicine and acupuncture has much to offer. Chinese medicine includes Chinese herbs, acupuncture and diet and lifestyle advice. While IVF takes care of the mechanical aspect of getting the sperm and egg together, Chinese medicine and acupuncture can
- Reduce stress & anxiety and lower stress hormone levels that may impair effective functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovary (HPO) axis
- Improve and strengthen general health to allow for a healthy pregnancy
- Improve quality of eggs and sperm
- Reduce the side effects of hormone injections and other medications that are part of an IVF cycle
- Increase blood flow to the uterus and improve the lining of the uterus
- Prevent uterine contraction post-transfer of embryo and thereby improving chance of implantation
- Prevent miscarriage
- Support the growth and development of the baby
The best time to start fertility acupuncture is two to three months before your IVF cycle begins to get the maximum effect and have the best chance of improving egg quality and enhancing overall health. However, fertility acupuncture can be combined with fertility treatments as the IVF cycle begins. Your chances of success will still be higher than without any acupuncture at all.